Current Members
Faculty
Alan Balch
Research Interests
Endohedral Fullerenes, Empty Cage Fullerenes, Polymorphs, Chemical Bonding, Luminescence in d8 and d10 Transition Metal Complexes, and Crystallization of Unstable Molecules. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his family, going to art galleries and the theatre, and listening to music.
Endohedral Fullerenes, Empty Cage Fullerenes, Polymorphs, Chemical Bonding, Luminescence in d8 and d10 Transition Metal Complexes, and Crystallization of Unstable Molecules. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his family, going to art galleries and the theatre, and listening to music.
Marilyn M. Olmstead
Research Interests
With small molecule X-ray crystallography as the focus, her research ranges from fullerene chemistry to coordination compounds and bioinorganic chemistry. A central goal is the crystal structure determination of interesting compounds and materials, examination of intermolecular interactions as they are revealed in the solid state and detection of solid state phase transitions. Tools of modern instrumentation are employed such as in the use of synchrotron radiation (ALS in order to extract the maximum amount of information from the diffraction experiment.
Current Projects
Studies of fullerenes: endohedral fullerene cages, their cocrystals, polymers and adducts.
With small molecule X-ray crystallography as the focus, her research ranges from fullerene chemistry to coordination compounds and bioinorganic chemistry. A central goal is the crystal structure determination of interesting compounds and materials, examination of intermolecular interactions as they are revealed in the solid state and detection of solid state phase transitions. Tools of modern instrumentation are employed such as in the use of synchrotron radiation (ALS in order to extract the maximum amount of information from the diffraction experiment.
Current Projects
Studies of fullerenes: endohedral fullerene cages, their cocrystals, polymers and adducts.
Graduate Students
Daniel Walters
Daniel received his B.S. in Chemistry at University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee where he studied metalloprotein kinetics. He currently studies aurophilic interactions in multi-centered gold complexes. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his wife and cats, as well as playing video games.
Lucy Luong
Lucy received her B.A. in Chemistry at Dartmouth College in 2016, where she studied the thermodynamics of zinc(II) binding to the glucocorticoid receptor DNA-binding domain using isothermal titration calorimetry. She is currently synthesizing gold-phosphine clusters and studying polymorphism in gold(I) complexes. In her free time, she enjoys cooking and eating the foods she cooks.
Mrittika Roy
Mrittika received B.Sc. in Chemistry at Presidency University, Calcutta. She received her Masters in Inorganic Chemistry from University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth under Prof. David Manke. She is currently working on fullerne functionalization and fullerene crystal engineering. In her free time, she enjoys painting, baking, and trying to befriend neighborhood dogs.
Steven Gralinski
Steven graduated in 2018 from Texas State University with a B.S. in Chemistry. He is interested in organic chemistry and materials science, and worked on photochromic materials and conductive polymers as an undergraduate. Recently, he has joined the Balch group and is researching the properties and derivitization of fullerenes. When not in lab, he likes taking road trips, playing muggle quidditch, and drinking coffee.
Lilia Baldauf
Lilia received her B.A. in Chemistry and Music from University of San Diego in 2018. She is also part of the fullerene chemistry division in the Balch Lab and is interested in transition metal chemistry. As an undergraduate, she worked on the synthesis, characterization, and preliminary testing of enantioselective catalysts under Dr. Christopher J. Daley. In her free time, Lilia enjoys singing, playing the piano, and dancing.
Undergraduate Students
Alexandria Adams
1. What is your educational background/what degree are you pursuing?
B.S. in ACS Chemistry
2. What are you currently doing in your research?
Crystallizing and studying properties of luminescent gold(I) complexes.
3. What do you enjoy about UC Davis?
I enjoy the cow related items you can find in the campus store.
4. What is your favorite restaurant/food in Davis?
Davis Creamery because ice cream is the key to my happiness.
Lauren Deguzman
Pursuing a degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry
Mihoko Kubo
1. What is your educational background/what degree are you pursuing?
B.S. in Chemistry and a minor in Spanish
2. What are you currently doing in your research?
Functionalizing fullerenes and separating isomeric fullerene derivatives
3. What do you enjoy about UC Davis?
Bikes, EggHeads, and Picnic Day!
4. What is your favorite restaurant/food in Davis?
I honestly love all Davis food places :)
Venoos Moshayedi
1. What is your educational background/what degree are you pursuing?
Fourth year Pharmaceutical Chemistry major
2. What are you currently doing in your research?
Synthesizing gold (I) crystals in different conditions in order to determine the variety of polymorphs.
3. What do you enjoy about UC Davis?
I enjoy how everyone is very friendly, even if they're a stranger
4. What is your favorite restaurant/food in Davis?
Davis has some good Thai restaurants, but I personally really like Taste of Thai.